A Rainy Monday

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

October 14^th.

It was raining this Monday morning unlike last Monday that was warm and dry and sunny when we had eight visitors through the doors.  Pete was with me and he had been out and about visiting dealers that included, West London Suzuki in Bedfont,  Cooperized Dyno and Service Centre in Feltham and First Line Motorcycles in Arnos Grove handing out fliers as he went. Then I had arrived on the Valiant but this Monday I was in the car and first to arrive waiting in the drizzle. A dull day weather wise but not for us. Yesterday, Sunday, had been busy in the museum and the two Jes’s had been wall mounted near the entrance. 

 

Now that was a surprise for me as they had both been in the barn last Monday. My mission today was to find the Classic Bike Guide Magazine of April 05 and read up on an interesting AJS that I had spotted last Monday. I didn’t know that AJS had made, what looked to be a “racing” vee twin in the thirties. I thought at that time the big 50 degree twin was only side valve. So when I did find the magazine and read about it I discovered that it was not an original. It looked a bit American with the style of the handlebars and position of the footrests. 

 

The hairpin valve springs should have been a give away as the whole bike turned out to be someone’s’ brain child. Parts gathered from later models and made into a very nice special. Sadly to say it is not in our museum. More people came to see us, one guy from Spain with limited English and his girl friend interpreting. Valves are valvos and frames are chassis and she did well to pass on my descriptions of things. Among the things discussed was the influence of Art Deco on the shape of fuel tanks and mudguards of the early twenties and the 1946 GP racer. At the end of the afternoon a Velocette LE enthusiast asked me about a problem he had with his LE. I would have asked him to bring it around so I could help but he was here and the bike in Scotland! I said he needs to join the club!  Now I have the magazine and got it home to scan in the pictures and finally get around to reading it only to discover tucked in the back of the magazine is one of my favourites from my youth, a TRW. 

If I can remember it was an ex RAF model from around 1954 that was worth nothing at the time and a moped was quicker and cheaper to run. This particular one in the magazine had an excellent finish and looks very nice. I still prefer the one in the museum that has rear suspension and a slick-shift gearbox and was registered in 1972 and appears to be the only one in existence although Triumph did experiment with the TRW engine in a Trophy frame. The TRWs were used by the Royal Corps of Signals until more powerful ohv engines replaced them. Having done figures of eight at a handling skills day like the “White Helmets” it is a very interesting experience and is just as much fun to do as to watch!

An Italian Presence

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Bennelli’s Come to Town

As much as I like to get out to events and spread the word of the London Motorcycle Museum, you cannot get to them all. Last Sunday was no exception with missing out on an interesting day. It was titled  “Sand and Motorcycles” It is an annual event at the Leighton Buzzard Railway celebrating the history of the sand that was excavated for making the castings for shells in World War One and after the war the company built a narrow gauge railway to the main line. Moving on to World War Two and the pits had expanded to a vast area so some motorcycles were purchased to transport the fitters around the site doing running repairs to equipment. These bikes did sterling service in the most inhospitable conditions as sand and oil grind all the moving parts to paste very quickly. The riders must have been pretty good at off road too! I have now put this event in my diary and will try to be there to represent the Museum next year. So I’ve been busy this past week with Sunday hosting a Scalextric 2CV Grand Prix in the back garden and having to repair all the cars used to some degree over the next few days. Only just getting out to the LE club night on Tuesday to return all the Ally Pally show gear for storage with Chris. It is now Sunday and I need to touch base with the Museum and find out what has happened in the last week. There are two new arrivals to see a 1968 BSA Spitfire racer built and raced by Steve Brown who worked in the race department at BSA and a well used little C10 of 1953 vintage. So while I was there half a dozen bikes with very sporty exhausts made their presence felt and heard. Six Bennelli’s had arrived! What an array of machinery! 

One of the guys had been at the Salon Privee a few weeks ago and promised to come. They had arrived in style. The Bennelli Owners club! Most people remember the across the frame Sei or six in English and that was before the Honda Six!  We had a discussion about the effectiveness of the rear brake on one of the Bennelli’s. I muted the point that it was not necessary to work that well as the front one could stand it on end anyway. There were some nice comments about the Valiant then they disappeared into the Museum and I took a few photos of the bikes. 

They were looking at somewhere else to go today so I mention the Sand and Motorcycle event at Leighton Buzzard and it turned out that one of the guys lived quite close to it. The bit of news was that after talking to Bill about the Speedway Museum at the Paradise Wildlife Park at Broxbourne he told me about the introduction of Speedway into the UK from Australia with the first event being at Canada Heights then, of all places Greenford! In 1928 the track was built and is now no longer there. It has become a housing estate just off the A40 at the north end of Oldfield Lane South or the south end of Oldfield Lane North. Something to follow up when the weather is less hospitable.